


At The End

by ChokolatteJedi



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Canonical Character Death, Character Death, Genetic Engineering, M/M, Mental Coercion, Mental Instability, Mild Sexual Content, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-05
Updated: 2013-07-05
Packaged: 2017-12-17 19:42:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/871275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChokolatteJedi/pseuds/ChokolatteJedi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sephiroth made a promise to Cloud.</p>
            </blockquote>





	At The End

**Author's Note:**

> **Prompt:** "I will be the one to meet you at the end." Character A sounded so sure, but Character B was uncertain, what if Character A didn't claim victory? Character B would have to mate a stranger.  
>  **Disclaimer:** I don't own Sephiroth or Cloud, Final Fantasy Advent Children, or the rest of the FF7 compilation.  
>  **Notes:** Canonical genetic and mental manipulation. Much thanks to my beta, Cass!

"I will be there. I will be the one to meet you at the end." Sephiroth whispered.

"Why?" Cloud asked. "Why do we have to split up?"

"Because I have something to do, and you can't be involved, my little one. You need to stay with the others, and play your part."

"I don't want to." Cloud pouted. He hated having to be a leader. Hated the conflicting memories and sensations within him. Part of him wanted to cuddle up to Sephiroth, and let the Alpha protect him from the rest of the world, but part of him wanted to fight. He hoped that if he just ignored that Alpha part of himself long enough, it would simply fade away. But the others kept bringing it out, making him remember. He just wanted it to stop.

"I know you don't want to, my little one, but this is necessary." Sephiroth ran his fingers lightly through Cloud's hair. "We will have to be separated for a little while, and then you will have to fight me. But you will lose, and I will be there to claim you again."

Cloud frowned. He still didn't know why they had to do this. And what if it didn't go the way Sephiroth thought it would? It wasn't that his master wasn't wonderful, but unexpected things could always happen. And Shinra was powerful. What if they had some secret weapon that could defeat Sephiroth? After all, they were the ones that had created the SOLDIERs. They were the ones who had given each of them their own place in the order of things. What if they could take away Sephiroth?

"What if?"

"I will be there!" Sephiroth insisted. "I will be there, and I will claim you again. And the claiming will be all the sweeter for the absence." He licked Cloud's ear, making the blonde shiver. He needed this, needed Sephiroth. If his lover was wrong, if everything didn't go as planned... Cloud couldn't handle that.

"Make love to me?" he asked. Dawn was coming soon, but he needed this, needed to feel his lover in him again before they split up. Needed the memory to last him through the separation.

Sephiroth responded by rolling them over, pinning Cloud beneath him. He began to kiss, lick, and bite at Cloud's neck. Cloud writhed, enjoying the sensations but needing more. "Please... please..."

"Please what?" Sephiroth taunted, his low voice tickling Cloud's ear.

"Please more!" Cloud gasped.

And Sephiroth obliged.

"I will be here at the end."

oOoOoO8OoOoOo

Cloud gunned his bike louder, hoping that the noise would fill his mind and drown out his thoughts. It didn't, but he still hoped. He had tried drinking, tried drowning himself in his friends, tried being alone in the wilderness, but nothing had helped. Cloud could still hear _his_ voice filling his hears with that slow drawl. So he drove. Miles and miles crisscrossing through the dust as the bike roared.

Why wouldn't his memory just go away? Cloud struck out blindly, his fist connecting with the bike and sending pain shooting up his arm. His arm. The painful bruising that had appeared just days after he had killed his lover. It was what he deserved, the punishment for his crime. Though, having to live the rest of his life without his Alpha should have been punishment enough, Cloud bore his stain with as much stoicism as he could muster.

Cloud flexed his fingers, working out the sting. Hitting his bike wasn't a good solution, and it didn't even really help in the short run, but he was just so frustrated. Sephiroth was supposed to still be here! He was supposed to have been victorious! He was supposed to meet Cloud at the end, and come back for him! He wasn't supposed to have died.

And the others, turning to Cloud like a savior. Wanting only that piece of him which liked to fight, which acted like the Alpha male they all thought he was. That foreign piece, he now knew. He had known it all along, but now there was proof - memories, explanations he didn't completely want to hear.

Cloud just wanted to cut that part out of him and throw it away. Then he could just be Sephiroth's Cloud. Just cuddle in his Alpha's arms and forget that any of this had ever happened. Except he couldn't. That piece of him was the only thing that kept him going now. Kept him on his feet when he only wanted to fall into grief. Sephiroth was dead, and he would never hold Cloud again.

"You lied." he whispered to the wind. "You said you would be here at the end."

"Then this must not be the end." he almost thought he heard a voice whisper back. It's what Sephiroth would have said. Would have punished him for doubting by pinching his nipple. Would have added, "My planning is flawless, so if I am not there, then it is not the end." And then would have kissed him, hard.

Cloud lost himself in the imagining for a little while, but eventually the dreams faded as the real world came back into focus. It might not be the end, but with Sephiroth dead, his lover was still never coming back for him. And Cloud didn't know what to do without him.

"You lied."

oOoOoOOo8oOOoOoOo

Cloud's eyes widened as another, oh so familiar, sword grew beneath his own. This couldn't be happening. It couldn't be possible.

_"You said you would be here at the end."_

_"Then this isn't the end."_

"Hello Cloud."

That voice, that face, that hair, that body, that sword. It was everything Cloud wanted. Everything he needed and had been searching for in the last two years. He cursed himself for ever not believing that Sephiroth was going to come back. He had said he would, and Cloud had sworn not to doubt, but he had doubted, and yet here his Master was.

But there was something off. A coldness in his eyes. A harshness when he swung. The words he spoke were familiar, he had said similar things often before, but gone was the fondness. Where was Cloud in his plans?

And Cloud finally realized. This wasn't his Sephiroth.

This was a child, playing dress up. A Beta, playing Alpha as surely as Cloud did. Kadaj had no idea who Sephiroth had really been. He was chasing down a mirage as surely as Cloud was trying to hold on to one. This was the Sephiroth that Kadaj imagined, not the one who had left Cloud behind. This Sephiroth wasn't his Alpha.

He was still alone.

Cloud let himself mourn for a moment at that thought, and he paid for his inattention. As cold metal burned through his shoulder, he felt the fighting part of himself come to the front. This wasn't his Sephiroth. This wasn't his Alpha. This was the monster that all the others wanted him to kill. This was Kadaj playing in big brother's shoes. And they didn't fit him nearly so well.

This was something he could fight. Something he should fight.

Cloud grabbed his sword. Today, for the second time, he would kill Sephiroth. And for the second time, he would be left all alone.

_"I will be here at the end."_

_"You lied."_


End file.
